More Movie Clips of Arunachala

I have added the earlier movies to youtube. You can see them there now, and download using keepvid.com if you wish to. -- Feb 2007.

Last time (see this entry) I missed out taking a clip of Skandashramam. Here are two:
Skandasramam Interior (5.7MB)

Skandasramam Exterior (10.2MB)

This one is a rotating shot of Arunachala on the way up to the Skandasramam.
Arunachala (10MB)
Inner Pradakshina Route - 1 (6.6MB)

Inner Pradakshina Route - 2 (4 MB)

There are several clips of the Annamalai Swamy Temple in the same folder, along with the older clips (of the Ashram Halls and Virupaksha Cave). New ones have 2007 appended to them.
MOVIES FOLDER

Request to readers: if you have taken some nice photographs or movie clips of the Sri Ramanasramam or Arunachala, i would be happy to link to your blog/flickr, or add them to mine. If you have taken movie clips, you can host them free on a picasaweb.google.com for which you need a gmail account. (Currently, they don't support movie uploads from a Mac, so i can't upload it there.)
You may host clips on youtube, and also high quality, large size videos on stage6.com.

Samadhi of Lakshmi

A photograph of Lakshmi, absorbed into Sri Bhagavan on 18th June, 1948.
Some endearing accounts of Lakshmi:

The darling of all ashramites, Lakshmi the cow was
believed to be Keerai-patti reborn. She had a free run of
the Ashram ground. She would often trample upon
vegetable beds and have her fill and if anyone tried to
chase her away, the Maharshi would intervene and say, "It
was your fault that you did not properly fence off the
area. Why blame her?" On such occasions, Lakshmi would
walk into the hall and stand close to Bhagavan as if she
was innocent. Nobody could do anything about it.

Followers (Ramana Leela)

It was 1948, the next one to leave Bhagavan was
Lakshmi the cow. We have already seen the love and
affection Bhagavan showered on the cow. She lived at the
Ashram for well over twenty years....

Moving accounts of the passing of several followers

... and said, “Oh Lakshmi, Lakshmi,” and then, to us,
controlling his tears, he said, “Because of her, our family
(the Ashram) has grown to this extent.”

The Deliverance of Lakshmi

Burial of Lakshmi

Bhagavan Jayanthi 2007 pictures

Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya !
The Bhagavan Jayanthi 2007 was a simple celebration. Chanting of Vedas and other Tamil works of Bhagavan, starting about 4:30 am. The rush started about 10am, the Samadhi Hall was full by then. The program finished at about 11 am.

Over the period of the Jayanthi week there were huge crowds visiting the ashram and the caves. A full-moon night fell before the Jayanthi.

For more pictures of Arunachala, please visit this url. There are pictures of the samadhis of Sri Kunju Swami, Sri Ramaswami Pillai, Sri Muruganar, Sri Vishwanath Swami, devotees of Bhagavan who attended on Him for many years. Also pictures of the samadhis of Sri S.S. Cohen, Sadhu Arunachala, and Lucy Ma. Of Lakshmi, beloved of Bhagavan. Of Sri Annamalai Swamis temple. These pictures did not figure in the previous visits album at this url.

Some movies will be uploaded in a day - nothing great or ego-shattering!

Here are some references to earlier Jayanthi's that should interest you. Kindly click on the link to see the full articles.

It was the month of December and Bhagavan's jayanthi
was arriving. I used to talk to my doctor friend about the
speciality of jayanthi darshan, for on the jayanthi day
Bhagavan had a special glow of light about him and his starry
eyes shed a special lustre and those around experienced the
ambrosia or the elixir of life. It is for experiencing this light
or bliss of being that devotees flocked to him from near and
far. Though this experience was obtained on normal days
too, it was very intense on particular occasions like jayanthi,
Mahapooja and Karthikai days, as also it was when great souls
met him.

From Silent Power

After the preliminary enquiries about his welfare, Bhagavan told us that it was this Sastry who started the Jayanthi celebrations. A devotee asked, “Is he the person who got frightened, and hid himself when a tiger appeared?” “Yes. It is he,” Bhagavan replied.

From Letters (80)

On special festival occasions
such as the birthday celebrations (Jayanthi) and Maha Puja, the students do not commence the Vedic recitations at the Brahma Muhurtham time (a couple of hours before sun rise), being tired with work on the previous night, but Bhagavan gets up as usual and keeps himself ready. If he is ever in ill health and his personal attendants request him to sleep a little longer, he replies, “What is the point in sleeping at the
time of the Brahma Muhurtham? If you want, you may sleep.”

From Letters (106)

Meanwhile, the jayanti of Bhagavan neared.
Dandapani wished to celebrate the jayanti at the samadhi.
A week before the jayanti Bhagavan visited the samadhi
and stayed back. Nobody knew the reason for it, ...

From Ramana Leela (c. 1922)